FDI India growing 48 percent, falling elsewhere: Sitharaman

Mumbai, Feb 8 (IANS) Foreign direct investment in India has been growing around 48 percent despite the global economic slowdown that has seen FDI declining elsewhere, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

“FDI in the world is falling… India is the only country where foreign investments are growing,” she said at the inaugural ceremony of ‘Make in India’ Week.

“The government has incessantly pushed policy measures to boost manufacturing and today, FDI in India is growing at 48 percent while globally there’s a sharp fall,” she said.

“The global business community has responded enthusiastically to the Indian economy’s revivalist fervour, and the Make in India Week will further showcase the nation’s accomplishments in manufacturing and position India as an investment, innovation and manufacturing hub,” she added.

The union commerce minister said the states have a significant role in building and sustaining a manufacturing revolution and they would be the drivers of development while the central government would play a catalytic role.

A Make in India Week 2016, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13, will be organised here to give further momentum to the initiative that has seen the country trump the US and China by attracting FDI worth $31 billion in the first half of 2015.

Over 1,000 companies are expected to showcase their achievements, while 70 countries will participate in the event with the theme “Innovation, Design and Sustainability” and which will be held at the Bandra-Kurla Complex here, the union department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) had announced in New Delhi in December.

The event will also have various states and sectors making a pitch for investments through specially organised seminars.

The US-based Forbes magazine in their latest annual list of the best countries for doing business in 2015 has ranked India 97th out of 144 nations, behind Kazakhstan and Ghana, scoring poorly on categories like trade and monetary freedom and tackling challenges like corruption and violence.

Forbes said that while the country is developing into an open-market economy, traces of its “past autarkic policies” remain.

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